Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[Dan3]

Re: I have to admit, it concerns me that not only did they not mention speed, but they also noted that 130nm could carry their performance chip through the end of the year.

Actually, it's pretty important. It's becoming more and more difficult to move to the next process node, but to do so without a pressing need to increase performance (initially) makes the move much less difficult.

Unpressured transitions tend to go smoothly, while transitions made when there is a high level of urgency to simultaneously move to the new node quickly while gaining a substantial performance increase have a history of becoming disasters.

AMD is presently in the very pleasant position of not needing anything new (in terms of process) for several quarters. It lets them methodically develop the process, on test wafers running under production conditions, instead of concurrently shotgunning a number of variations into their production process in the hope that one of the combinations will work - what Intel's been doing for a year, and what has their high end production stymied.